Prague, 26–27 September 2024

CALL FOR PAPERS

International Conference on History of Emergency Medical Services

(Prague, 26–27 September 2024)

Changes in Emergency Medical Services in the 20th and 21st Centuries: Actors – Organization – Technology – Innovation

Conference venue: FHS UK campus, Pátkova 2137/5, Praha 8 – Libeň, Prague, Czech Republic.

Important dates:

Submission deadline: 31^st May 2024

Notification of Acceptance: 15^th June 2024

Final Programme: 31^st July 2024

The conference will focus on the analysis and identification of processes (mainly institutionalization, professionalization and modernization) in EMS development and the way the professional identity of its employees was (re)established during the 20th century. EMS development would be set within the broader context of local public health development and international medical advances, but it can be also examined within the framework of political, cultural and social development.

Within the conference, EMS is understood as an internally structured organization, which, in the context of public health, can be clearly defined as a specific subject of research, subsequently viewed from different perspectives and in structural-functional relations (tensions between the ideal-typical model of professional pre-hospital emergency care provision and the actors’ everyday experience).

Suggested Topics:

• Predecessors of the emergency medical service in the 20th century (Red Cross and the Samaritans)
• State policy and expert knowledge in the process of building a pre-hospital emergency care system (including the differences between the Eastern and Western blocs during the Cold War and after the fall of Iron Curtain)
• The professional identity and trajectory of medical and healthcare personnel
• Institutional and organizational development (transport medical service, rapid medical assistance, emergency service, emergency medical service)
• Means of transport, rescue service logistics and regional specifics (organization of departure groups and development of vehicle/aircraft fleet)
• Technology, innovation and modernization in the context of emergency medical service
• Pop culture images of emergency medical services
• Ethics of care and dealing with death
• COVID-19 pandemic in the reflection of emergency medical services employees

We especially welcome interdisciplinary papers combining the history of medicine, sociology of health and medicine, contemporary history, memory and identity studies and social anthropology reflecting the development of pre-hospital emergency care.

Practical information:

Conference language will be English and Czech/Slovak. Papers should have a duration of 15–20 minutes. There is no conference fee. Please submit your abstracts (via email zzs@usd.cas.cz), which should be 180–200 words in length, along with a brief CV.

More information can be found here: 

Enquiries: zzs@usd.cas.cz